Syrian Foreign Minister Assad Shaybani stated on Saturday at the Manama Dialogue conference in Bahrain that the Syrian government is evaluating whether to join the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement. The agreement, signed in August by Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan, stipulates that an attack on one of the countries will be considered an attack on all three, and has been likened to the NATO security alliance. Shaybani also claimed that Israel has launched over 1,000 attacks on Syria in less than two years, resulting in dozens of deaths.